Two Swiss universities top THE’s list of the world’s most international universities 2017

ETH Zurich and EPFL ranked first and second respectively on the ranking by Times Higher Education (THE), listing the most international universities worldwide. The University of Zurich came in 15th, an impressive jump from 105th rank the year before. The ranking is based on four categories, namely proportion of international students, proportion of international staff, journal publications with at least one international co-author and international reputation.

The two top swiss institutions are followed by ones from Hong Kong and Singapore, all relatively small nations placing great importance on trade, as well as places where English is widely spoken. These factors may make an aim for internationalization more natural than elsewhere. The ranking shows the prominence of Anglophone universities in general, with the UK, Australia and Canada following the top four. With an ever increasing offer of English as language of instruction, Swiss institutions are able to benefit from this important criterion. The two top Swiss institutions do furthermore have the greatest average proportion of international staff and internationally co-authored publications within the ranking.

Improving the quality of education and preparing students for a global world are important goals in globalizing higher education. Crucial means to achieve these are measures such as international students- and scholars-mobility, international partnerships and research collaborations. ETH Zurich with over 8’000 research partnerships worldwide is a prime example, together with its strong efforts to attract and foster students and researchers from all over the world.

ETH Zurich had 8’016 international research partners in 2015 (Source: ETH Zurich)

In comparison, the most international Japanese universities are: The University of Tokyo (136), University of Tsukuba (141) and Tokyo Institute of Technology (143).

Please find detailed information on the ranking and the internationalization of higher education on the THE website.